A two-year project is proposed to extend a longitudinal study of the effect of stress and support variables on family processes, maternal depression, and child adjustment. The sample of 194 families was first assessed three to 12 months following marital separation. Mothers and their 6- to 12-year-old children (194 boys and 40 girls) were assessed three times at six-month intervals. A fourth assessment, approximately two years after the last assessment, is proposed for 150 families. The assessment includes the SADS clinical interview and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, to enable us to map our measures onto the findings reported by others using the DSM-III and Hamilton definitions of depression. A process model for maternal depression will be tested. Dynamic mechanisms are offered as explanations for why some mothers remain in a depressed mood and others do not. Analyses are proposed with possible determinants for continued loss of support and continued stress, which are viewed as the prime determinants for maternal depression. This study plans to (a) refine constructs and conduct further analyses with the original data set, (b) reassess 150 of the families with systematic use of multiagent and multi-method strategies to define key constructs in the theoretical models, and (c) test a process model for maternal depression. Defining constructs from measures with both self-report and other-agent data will make it possible to test for the generalizability of depression models using self-report data versus the combination of self- and other-agent reports. Structural equation models and other multi-variate statistical procedures will be employed.